Janitorial wipers form a significant business market. Most of the janitorial market is dominated by conventional woven rag products, including terrycloth toweling, mixed rags, huck and near white rags. A small but significant portion of the market is made up of nonwoven disposable materials, such as, for example, treated bonded carded webs (BCW).
The primary tasks performed by janitorial workers include wiping, dusting, and polishing various surfaces including furniture, floors of various materials and textures, and bathroom fixtures. The major implements include treated dust cloths, treated dust mops, and rags for all purpose wipes.
Some manufacturers produce dusters which are sized so as to be used with specially manufactured holders. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,988 to Thielen, assigned to 3M Company, such a holder or dust mop frame is disclosed. 3M produces a melt-blown product in a relatively narrow perforated roll form for use with the dust mop frame in Thielen. The dust mop frame has clips which are adapted to secure the cloth to the mop.
Johnson & Johnson produces a variety of dusting cloths sized so that when folded they may be used with a corresponding dust mop frame having resilient fingers for holding the cloth. The fingers are incorporated in flexible plastic valve-like structures into which a gathered portion of the cloth may be secured by a digitally implemented force fit insertion. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,103 to Nash and assigned to Johnson & Johnson.
The cloths used with these devices do not exhibit elasticity and recovery as defined herein so that it is difficult to snugly fit the cloth to the dust mop frame for best results. Further, in our opinion, these products do not adequately resist abrasion, pickup sufficient amounts of dust (whether or not treated) or slide readily on various surfaces.